Q: Where do you, personally, scout?
A: Everywhere. The Final Four, I've been to the (NCAA) regionals, and Europe.
Q: To see specific players?
A: Some players I want to see again and some I want to see if I want to see.
Q: Do you look for the same things from the high school players at the NBA Pre-Draft camp in Chicago as you do from the college players in the NCAA tournament and the European professionals?
A: You look for similar things. Obviously, if you're looking at a point guard you might not look for rebounding ability as much as you would from a big guy. It varies by position, but it doesn't vary with the things that you think should be innate in a guy: his competitiveness. You want him to compete and play hard.
You'd like athleticism in the player. You'd like a basketball IQ. You want him to understand where he's most effective; if he's not a good outside shooter you don't want to see him out there shooting outside shots. You'd like him to have the understanding of how he can be best effective in the game for his particular team.
You look for the guy's attitude, you look for his coachability, you watch him during the game. But you also watch him when he's not in the game. Some people don't look at that but I watch a guy when he's not in the game, when he's on the bench.
Q: What do you watch?
A: Everything. Is he part of the huddles? Is he interacting with his teammates? Is he taking care of himself physically? Like heat pads, ice bags, whatever it might be. You observe and evaluate.
Q: How often do you see a player in person? How many times do you need to see a player before you know what kind of player he is?
A: I don't think there's a set number of times. It's certainly multiple times for me -- more than three or four times. You see him during the year with his team. You see him in the summer when he's not with his team. You see him at some all-star games. You see him at the sports festivals, the Olympic trials. You see him wherever you can. You see him in person as many times as you can.
I like to see players in person even though I watch tape of players. But I prefer to watch them in person because you can't see everything on tape.
Q: When a player you are looking at seriously has a bad game, how much weight do you give to that?
A: You look at the bad games and you look at the good games. You have to evaluate them both. How does he play? Does he hot-dog it if he has a good game? Is he a different kind of player? If he's going bad, does he become timid? Is he afraid to get himself out of his problem? Is he a different kind of player depending on what kind of game he's having? You like to see some consistent effort and mentality from the player regardless of whether he's effective or not.
If he's taking high-percentage shots and he misses them, he misses them. But he's taking shots he would normally make. You look at his overall field-goal percentage for the year, you can't just base it on that game. If he missed or made 10 of 15 shots, you don't got only by that but by what he's done for the season. What has he done for his career?
Q: Is there any single trait or skill that, when you see it, you know you're looking at a player who's going to be good in the NBA?
A: No, I wouldn't say there is any one thing that supercedes everything else. A guy may be a great athlete but that doesn't mean he's going to be a great player. There are a lot of great athletes who are looking for work. You may be someone who can really shoot the ball, or handle the ball. Or you may be really tall. Or you may really play hard. You've got to be able to do a few things.
Q: How often does it happen that you go to see a particular player and end up being impressed by another player?
A: Not very often. There aren't any secrets in this league.
Q: How do your expectations change when you're evaluating high school players rather than college players?
A: You always have to extrapolate from what you see. Looking at a younger player, you have to extrapolate further: in three years, what will this guy be like? Does he work hard? Does it look like he'll take to lifting weights? Will his body respond to that? Does it look like his shot isn't broken, as we call it? Meaning that it's not too messed up and you don't have too much work to do on it.
You can't coach effort; you want a guy that's going to compete. Will he get after it without you getting on him? Some things make you say, 'This guy's going to translate into a pretty good player' and some things make you say, 'This guy might fail because he doesn't have enough the necessary ingredients.'
You want to see what happens when they've tasted their own blood. Meaning, he's never really gotten hit. In the mouth. Some guys go crazy if that happens to them. Or they become afraid and shy away from contact the rest of the game. Some guys say, 'OK, so that's how it's going to be. OK, we're gonna play harder.' Some guys approach it the way they should.
Q: Do you allow for differences in the way players have been coached or for the program in which they've been playing?
A: A system can hide something or it can enhance your game and what you do. If a team runs a lot of pick and rolls you can say, Wow, he plays a lot of pick and rolls already. If a team plays zone all the time then you figure he's not used to playing man to man.
Q: How are European players different?
A: European players generally are very skilled players. Their big men are more skilled because they use their big men out on the floor, as opposed to in the States, the big men go right around the basket a lot. You can make generalizations like that, that big men in Europe come over here more skilled in perimeter things. But that's one of the few generalizations you can make based on where a guy's playing.
Q: Do you automatically rule out somebody who's under six feet tall?
A: No. If a player's a good player, he's a good player. I'm not a size marshal. A lot of good NBA players aren't tall. You have to look for a player who can play first. You're not going to have a 5-4 center but if he's a guard, if he can do the things he's supposed to do, that's the most important thing.
Q: Will you draft for the best available athlete?
A: We will draft the best available basketball player that we can find. A guy that we think is going to be the best basketball player. Regardless of position. That's what we're going to take. If we take five guys that are forwards, then we'll take five guys that are forwards. We're not going for a guy at each position. We'll take whoever we think is the best player, even if it duplicates a position we already have.
Q: To trade? Or because you think they are so versatile that they will actually make a good team.
A: I don't know how we would approach it because I don't know the player yet, or the situation. I know it never hurts to have as many good players as you can have. That's the bottom line. We want as many good players as we can get. It's up to the coach after that. I just want good players.
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